The Dark – One of the reasons I shoot a Leica

Today I was at Luminata, the festival of the fall equinox that’s put on by the Fremont Arts Committee — which En is on the board of. I went out with the M10 and four lenses (21MM f/3.4, 35mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.4, 90mm f/2.0); I used three of them (35, 50, 90).

But you can get lenses similar to those for most camera systems.

No. The reason I shoot the Leica in the dark is because I can focus in dark. I can focus way darker than most DSLRs and in darkness that almost no mirrorless would focus in. (I’ll do a video on why there is a difference there. It’s in the optics)

I shoot the Leica because I have the controls I need. I touched on focus just now. Besides that, you have aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

I have all of those as physical controls I can use without even looking. That’s important because under these challenging lighting conditions I was shooting in manual mode, auto was plain getting confused. Instead of dicking around with exposure compensation, I just metered the scene where I wanted it and shot.

On top of that, when you’re shooting there’s no viewfinder blackout, so shooting pan shots is way easier.

The immediacy of the controls makes it such a joy to use. It’s why I wind up using it more than any other camera system I’ve ever had.

Is it for everyone? No… besides the stupid cost (no jokes… it’s fucking insane), it’s far from a point and shoot. You need to understand how the photograph is taken so you can control all the things you need to. But when you’re at one with it… it’s all worth it to me at least.